1996-01-15 04:00:00 PDT Irving, Texas -- Green Bay called it a dirty play. Dallas called it physical football. How you felt about the play that injured John Jurkovic, the Packers' defensive tackle, clearly depended on whether you wore a cheesehead on top or a shoe company's swoosh on your shoulder.

Jurkovic's left knee was injured shortly before halftime when Erik Williams, Dallas' offensive right tackle, blocked him from behind at the knees at the end of a running play. No penalty was called. Jurkovic suffered a torn medial collateral ligament.

"We've got a player who got his knee torn up, and the league will not do anything about illegal chops," said Reggie White, who spent much of the day fighting off Williams, whose blocks frequently featured a hand prominently placed in White's face.

"We get punched in the face," White added. "We're getting penalties that are ridiculous. And you guys are just gonna write about how we complain too much. I'm sick of it. I'm ticked off. I've got an official tell me I whine too much, and I've got a scratch under my eye."

The cheap-shot theme was heard throughout the Packers' locker room but was quickly dismissed in the Cowboys' locker room.

"It was a perfectly legal block," Williams said. "It was a cut block. There are blocks like that every week. It was just unfortunate that he got injured on that play. I never intended for him to get hurt. I'm not like that. Reggie was pretty mad about the play, but, hey, it's football. Every time a defensive lineman gets cut blocked, they think it's a dirty block."

Legal or not, the play clearly set the tone for what followed throughout a game which produced a lot of borderline hitting.

In fact, on the very next play, Green Bay linebacker George Koonce shoved Emmitt Smith out of bounds, and no penalty was called on that, either. On the second play of the third quarter, Packers center Frank Winters was penalized for belting Cowboys defensive tackle Chad Hennings from behind at the end of a play. Four plays after that, Dallas defensive tackle Leon Lett was flagged for a late hit when he punched Winters in the face. And, the next time the Packers had the ball, Cowboys' linebacker Dixon Edwards was penalized for hitting tight end Keith Jackson out of bounds.

Both sides admitted they got a little carried away at times. Packers coach Mike Holmgren said he thought his players "lost our poise a little," and Dallas guard Nate Newton said, "For a while there . . . they were throwing flags all over the place. I just said to our guys, 'Stay calm, stay together, don't do nothing stupid, and we'll be all right.' "

Well, it was a big game.

"When one team gets away with something, the other team will try it too," Winters said. "When that happens, things get a little out of control, and you start to see some real cheap shots. We didn't do it like they did. We didn't cheap-shot or chop-block. That's bulls- - -. I don't respect it at all.

"A play like that shouldn't happen. Jurkovic wasn't even in the play, and he gets hit like that. I have no respect for a guy like (Williams). The guy takes a three- yard head start and dives at the back of Jurkovic's knees. Nothing happened (from the officials). But that's the Cowboys. They play that way and they get away with it because they're the Cowboys. We've got to win a couple of Super Bowls before we can get away with stuff like that."

The Dallas players took the noise in stride.

"It's a big game. Of course you're going to have some shoving," said linebacker Dixon Edwards.